Iron Sky

It was a long time in the making, but now it is finally out: Iron Sky. It was released in Germany on April 5 and this was the day I went to see it.

The whole movie is just as absurd as the story promises: Space Nazis who escaped to the Moon in 1945 now want to come back to conquer the Earth.

The scouting mission of the Fourth Reich gets an unexpected ally who leads them to an even more unexpected ally. Both allies are rather temporary, obviously, but what they achieve and who picks up on and uses their slogans…

The reason why the scouting mission is started in the first place is another of those absurd strokes of genius permeating the whole movie: The Space Nazis capture a black American astronaut and the computer in his mobile phone turns out to be the final part the Nazis need for their Wunderwaffe. No more spoilers now, I will not reveal everything.

Now for a closer look at actors and characters.

The people who did the casting deserve an Eisernes Kreuz (jawoll!). The wide-eyed idealistic SS schoolteacher, the brick-jawed Waffen-SS career officer, the sinister Moon Führer, the black supermodel turned astronaut, the sex-crazed assistant of the president, the president of the United States, the North Korean patriot and the Finnish… Go look for yourself which role the Finnish ambassador plays. This all sound like Iron Sky is just a weird comedy, it is not.

The film pulls no punches commenting on very recent history. The quotes and reactions by the American president alone are worth the price you pay to see the movie, provided you like acidic satire.

The soundtrack also deserves special mention: Leibach created it, the Moon anthem is a masterpiece, and if you know Leibach, you know why they did it. I was actually expecting a Leibach cameo somewhere.

To sum up, Iron Sky is one action-packed, darkly humorous, politically incorrect and brilliantly witty jewel of a movie. If you only watch one film in 2012, go watch Iron Sky. It has Reichsflugscheiben and Zeppelins, that alone should be enough to send all the dieselpunks out there scrambling for tickets.